This is inspired by how similar Nate and Hugh's shoes look, and generally being sort of matching in color schemes. I love thinking about possible shenanigans ahah. I hope you enjoy!

Nate was always excited when his Mom took him shopping, for new clothes or shoes or anything else they might need for him or the house. He skipped ahead excitedly, with Mom calling out behind him telling him not to get lost. Of course he wouldn't, jeez. He was glancing all around. Hugh had told him his family were going shopping that day too, so he thought it'd be cool if they'd run into each other. But so far there was no sign of him or his family. That was a bit of a bummer.

He had slowed down, so Mom caught up with him, taking his hand firmly in her own. "You need new shoes, remember? That's the other way."

"I knoooow" Nate drawled out, "I was looking for something."

"Oh? What were you looking for?"

The little boy mumbled out a "nothing" as he followed her lead. He picked a pair of brandnew red and black sneakers. He was allowed to put them on right away.

On their way home, they ran into Hugh's family, who had done a lot of shopping for the baby they were expecting (or that's what Nate heard from the adults' conversation). The boys were grinning at each other. "Cool shoes!" Nate called out.

"Thanks, yours too!" Hugh called back.

Only the adults thought there was something a little strange about the fact their new shoes looked nearly the same.

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Some years later, when they were sitting with dinner after another tour of shopping, Nate's Mom asked: "Sweetie, why do you always pick shoes that look like the shoes Hugh has?"

"Huh?" Nate stared at her, a forkful of noodles hanging in midair because he forgot he was eating.

"For years now, you boys always end up having really similar looking shoes" Mom explained, "do you have a secret council before we go shopping?"

"What?" Nate still stared at her as if that was an offense. "Why would we have a secret council for shoes? We are cool guys and best friends ever, of course we have the same taste! That's just obvious!" He nearly ended up throwing half his food through the room because he was gesticulating wildly.

Mom didn't say anything else after that, and they finished dinner in silence. Nate, however, couldn't stop thinking about it afterwards.

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Over the years, it wasn't just their shoes that were strangely similar; all their clothes in general were in matching colorways, and if they weren't different sizes, they could've just swapped clothes and no one would've been the wiser. And later on still, even on their journey through Unova, people would sometimes ask if they agreed to have matching outfits - and especially shoes. It made Nate frown and think, because it felt like they were trying to say something but he couldn't put his finger on it. He wondered if Hugh ever got to hear the same things from people.

At one point, when Nate introduced his new friend and Battle Subway partner in crime, Rosa, she kept glancing between the boys and laughing to herself when she thought no one was paying attention. But Nate did, and there was that feeling again. When he later asked her why she laughed, she just said: "You and Hugh are pretty close, huh."

"Of course we are!" Nate said, "we've known each other since forever! And of course we'd have similar taste in cool clothes because of that, no secret council!"

"I didn't say anything about that, did I?" Rosa asked with a sly smile.

Nate couldn't stop the blush that heated up his face.

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One day, Nate finally decided to talk to Hugh about this. He called via Xtransceiver to ask to meet up, and now they were standing at Aspertia City's Outlook, just standing in silence because Nate couldn't figure out how to start.

Finally though, Hugh broke the silence. "What did you call me here for? This is an unusual place just to hang out."

"Uh." Nate was shuffling his right foot nervously. He had to start now, with or without the right way. "Did... did anyone ever ask you about shoes?" At Hugh's confused look, he blabbered on: "I mean, our shoes! Um, I mean, because we always have nearly identical shoes? Did - did anyone ever point that out to you?"

"Oh." Understanding dawned on Hugh's face. "Yeah, that happened a couple of times. What about it?"

"What did you tell them?" Nate questioned.

Hugh shrugged. "I didn't really tell them anything special." When Nate frowned, he asked: "Why are you bringing this up now? Is something wrong?"

"It's just..." Nate turned to look at the view from the Outlook. "Whenever someone brought it up, it's like... it's like they're implying something like, like... we're... dating, or something..." His voice was very low by the time he was done.

"Oh." There was silence again. Nate got progressively more nervous with each passing moment and when he thought he couldn't take it anymore, Hugh spoke again. "Do you want it to mean something like that?"

Nate turned back around to face Hugh, to the sight of his face flushed a light red. He probably wasn't much better himself. "I... honestly? I really wouldn't mind doing stuff like... I dunno, holding hands or something. Stuff like that. If you're cool with it."

"Cool."

"Is that a yes or a no?"

"Yes."

"Cool."

They started out matching by coincidence, but now they were a real match.